Ok, ok, ok…. Settle, I know you are just as excited about this one as I am!
Seriously though, cheesecake, pumpkin, latte, NO BAKE! … I mean really how could you not love this
I am such a fan of layered desserts and especially fond of the ones layered in mason jars. Mason jars are just plain great! We use them as cups in our house, we have mason jar style mugs as well… seriously!
Enough about our odd collection of glassware…
When I created this collection of recipes I knew I wanted something fun, individually portioned and fairly simple to make so of course a no bake cheesecake was the answer!
Now a cheese cake has a nice crunchy base… you can’t have a cheesecake without it! I know I said no bake, but, I may have slightly fibbed. I did bake the base crumble to toast the nuts and dry up the cookies a little… SOOO worth it!
Trust me… when this comes out of the oven it’s snackable… like really snackable… like you might have to smack your own hand to stay out of it… and then you will find yourself craving it later, and you will want to make it as a treat for movie night.
Skip the granola trail mixes, cookie crumble is where it’s at!
Pssssttt … doesn’t that tart look incredible too …. well you can get that one here…
To assemble these little jars of dreams
I started by layering some of the cookie crumble into the bottom of the dish, the base includes delicious ginger snaps, spice, obviously butter and the most delicious crunchy delectable morsels of Pecans (can you tell their my favorite!)
A generous helping of the cheesecake mixture and then finally topped with a scoop of maple whipped cream, sprinkle of crumble and some silky smooth caramel (I used store bought for that ;)… sometimes you need to cut a few corners. )
You will note that I added the ring top to the mason jars. I just feel it finishes the look/feel of the dessert but not completely necessary… You are trying to impress your guests after all 😉
The benefit of this dessert is that if your guests fill up too much on their dinner, you can send them home with a little cheesecake are package, just add the top.
What ever you choose to do, I know you will win over your guests even though this isn’t your traditional Thanksgiving Pie!

Servings |
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- 8 ounces Cream Cheese Room temperature
- 3/4 Cup Pumpkin
- 3 Tbsp Brown Sugar
- 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp Ground Ginger
- 1/8 tsp Ground All Spice
- 1/8 tsp Ground Nutmeg
- pinch Ground Clove
- 2 tsp Vanilla
- 1 packet Knox Gelatin any brand will work as long as its 7g
- 1/4 Cup Cold Water
- 1 Cup Whipping Cream
- 1/4 Cup Icing Sugar
- pinch Salt
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 1/2 Tbsp Espresso Powder Instant Espresso dissolved in 1 Tbsp Hot Water
- 1/2 Cup Whipping Cream
- 3 Tbsp Maple Syrup
- 1/2 Packet Knox Gelatin Approx. 3.5g (bloomed in 2 Tbsp cold water)
- pinch Salt
Ingredients
Cheesecake Filling
Maple Whip Cream
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- Bloom gelatin (pour powder in cold water) for 10 minutes
- To your mixer bowl, Add cream cheese and mix on medium high until smooth.
- Add pumpkin, sugar, spices, and vanilla. Mix on medium-high for 1-2 minutes, scrape sides and repeat.
- Pour mixture into another bowl and set aside. Rinse out mixer bowl (I didn't fully clean it as this next step is still for the cheesecake filling.)
- Add cream, sugar, salt, vanilla and espresso to the mixer bowl and whip on med-high until stiff peaks form.
- Microwave gelatin mix, 30 second intervals until clear liquid.
- Add to cheesecake mixture and mix thoroughly.
- Fold whipped cream into the cheesecake mixture in 2 parts.
- Divide mixture between the mason jars, pouring gently so the crumb doesn't move and mix with the cheesecake.
- Bloom gelatin (pour powder in cold water) for 10 minutes
- Add cream, maple syrup and salt to mix, whip on medium-high to soft peak.
- Microwave gelatin mix, 30 second intervals until clear liquid.
- Add to whip cream mixture and whip until stiff peak.
- you can add the cream in what ever manner you wish (pipe, dollop, scoop... I used my cookie scoop here)
- Sprinkle with reserved crumb and drizzle with your favorite caramel.
- Chill for 1-2 hours (or overnight... great make ahead dessert) and serve 🙂
Alternatively you could make this a large no bake cheesecake, slice and serve.
- If going this route, I would crush cookies and pecans to a finer crumb. Add an additional Tbsp of butter and press into a 8" Spring form pan.
- Add an additional 3.5g of gelatin (dissolve with the other 7g, no additional water needed)
- set overnight before de-panning
And I can't believe I wrote this entire post without mentioning once that this dessert is a fun play on a pumpkin spice latte... But you figured that out already, didn't you!
Keep the conversation going once dinner is over and serve these delectable delights to your hungry guests!
Aaron – once again thank you so sharing such amazing recipes. I am truly going to make these for Thanksgiving dinner down at the cottage this year.
Amazing! It’s my pleasure to share with you
Be sure to come back and let me know how everything goes!
Aaron, always surprising with wonderful and easy ideas!!!! And looks awesome!!!! I only have a question about baking in general. I noticed this recipe have gelatin, but I was wondering if there is something I can use instead that (as I can’t eat that). I have a lot of recipes that I would love to make full of dust because of that reason, and I don’t want to do the same with this one, looks so great!
Hi Katherine
Thank you so much for your kind words
The easiest substitute for gelatin is agar agar.
It substitutes equally for powdered gelatin.
It’s a vegetable gelatin, kosher, gluten free and non gmo.
https://amzn.to/2xHH683
If not able to find in stores you can grab it on amazon (link above)
-Aaron